UPDATE: Foul Play Suspected in 1983 Cold Case; Body Now ID'd

posted by Todd Halliday
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2 years ago

Shelby, NY -- The New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation has announced that an unidentified female body found in the Town of Shelby, Orleans County, in October 1983 has been identified.

The body was found by a hunter several feet off the shoulder of State Route 63. It was in a severely decomposed state and believed to have been there for several months.

The victim has been identified as Shari Ball. She was reported missing by her family in June 1983 to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. Shari told her family that she was going to New York State to begin a modeling career. She made contact with a friend a day or two after she left Florida from a truck stop in Ashland, Virginia, but was never heard from again after that.

A state police spokesman says the remains were exhumed in October 2013, and tests concluded in the last few days that the DNA matched DNA collected by the family. Dental records also confirmed the identity.

Police say foul play is suspected in the death, but the cause of death has not been determined.